The road to WrestleMania 34 begins at the Royal Rumble in Philadelphia tonight. At what should be the creative peak of the WWE year, both Smackdown and Raw are in the midst of a lull. There is a lot of unwatchable content on WWE these days with the proliferation of the Women’s and Cruiserweight Divisions. You pretty much have to watch Raw and Smackdown on a DVR so you can fast-forward through all of that. Not to mention, Roman Reigns is laying in wait to ruin yet another WrestleMania main event, so there isn’t much suspense right now in wondering who is going to get the big push in the coming months.

There are many bright spots in the middle card right now, and the Royal Rumble is always one of the more entertaining cards of the year. So, there is plenty to look forward to this evening, of course with the exception of the Women’s Royal Rumble. You should change the channel or take a nap or pet your dog or do anything else you can think of while this abomination is on.

AJ Styles has been a fan favorite since his first days in the WWE, having distinguished himself in every other major wrestling promotion in the world prior to his WWE debut. His current run as WWE champion has been solid, and his momentum could carry him to WrestleMania 34 to defend his championship in the semi-main event.

Kevin Owens is the best heel on the Smackdown brand. He is a relentless jerk, and never runs out of things to say to draw heat to himself. Sami Zayn was spinning his wheels for his entire WWE run as a white-meat-babyface, and his fortunes turned around mightily when he turned heel by aligning himself with his former foe, Kevin Owens. The two are a natural pairing, and they complement each other very well as annoying, cowardly heels.

The underpinning storyline behind this match is the budding feud between Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon that lead to the stipulation that this will be a handicap match for the WWE title. Expect the Bryan/McMahon situation to explode somehow during this match, affecting the outcome. I find it highly unlikely that they will award the WWE championship to two men using the Freebird Rule.

Prediction: Winner and still WWE Champion, AJ Styles

Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan (c) vs. Cesaro and Sheamus in a Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

The unlikely pairing of Kurt Angle’s “son”, Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins was made possible due to the unfortunate injury to Dean Amborse. Jordan was put in an interesting spot with the illegitimate child angle (no pun intended), but not too many interesting moments came out of it until he paired with Rollins. Now, they are a classic good guy/bad guy tag team, and play well off of each other. Jordan has made the most of his role, and has gotten over as a heel.

Cesaro and Sheamus continue to impress as the best tag team in the WWE today. Both were likely at the end of their WWE runs before they paired as a tag team, and they caught fire once they united. They have great in-ring chemistry, and put on great matches on pay-per-views.

Prediction: Winner and new Tag Team Champions, Cesaro and Sheamus

The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin in a 2-out-of-3-falls match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The way these teams have been presented, I don’t know who is the babyface or heel team, nor do I understand why this has to be a 2-out-of-three falls match. There isn’t much interesting going on here, and I expected better out of Shelton Benjamin since he returned to the WWE.

Prediction: Winners and still WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champions, The Usos

No doubt about it, this is going to be the match of the night. Braun Strowman is red hot right now, he has gotten over with the fans and has potential to carry the company if he plays his cards right. He has freakish size and strength, in-ring ability, and is great on the mic. The over-the-top displays of strength he shows by pulling down lighting rigs and flipping over semi-trucks are outright hilarious. He has surpassed Roman Reigns in terms of ability, and hopefully WWE brass realizes that soon.

Kane is making a late-career main event run. After having lost a considerable amount of time to injury, he made his way back into the top of the card. Kane may seem like an odd pick for this match, but he has consistently been one of the most dependable performers in the WWE over the past 20 years, and will play an important part in this match.

Brock Lesnar is very consistent, if not somewhat stale. Unlike Kane, not much changes with his character. It might be time to change some things up if he’s going to stick to the WWE for an extended run. I’d expect him to put on a great match like he always does.

Prediction: Winner and still WWE Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar

2018 Women’s Royal Rumble match for a women’s championship match at WrestleMania 34

This is a horrible idea. It’s going to be the worst match of the year, and it’s going to go on way too long. If you like watching people with pink and purple hair blow spots for an hour, you are in luck. If you’re like me, there’s probably something better on TV at the time to watch instead.

Prediction: This match is going to suck and let’s hope it’s one and done and they never do it again!

2018 Men’s Royal Rumble match for a championship match at WrestleMania 34

The most unpredictable and unique match of the year will help shape one of the biggest matches on the WrestleMania card. Interestingly enough, only 18 of the participants have been named thus far, with 12 remaining. The mystery remains who the other 12 will be, but it is unlikely that the winner is among that group. For the most part, the Royal Rumble only has a handful of people with a reasonable chance of winning and going on to a title match at WrestleMania. There are a few categories that the competitors can be bucketed into.

No Chance in Hell:

Matt Hardy: The fans wanted his “Broken” gimmick from TNA. They got a “Woken” gimmick and it is terrible.

Rusev: Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once a dependable heel, now he’s a babyface with a catchphrase. A funny catchphrase, but not ‘Mania-main-event-worthy.

Aiden English: Funny guy, will get tossed.

Apollo Crews: I watch WWE every week, I barely know who he is.

Titus O’Neil: Perennially underused, too old for a push to the top.

Tye Dillinger: Bad gimmick and very boring. Will never be WWE champ.

Big E: Has potential to be a top guy in the company, need to flip to heel and leave the New Day first.

Kofi Kingston: Is not going to WrestleMania in a singles match.

Xavier Woods: See Kofi Kingston

Could Shock the World:

Elias: Has done well with the opportunity he’s been given since his Raw call up.

Shinsuke Nakamura: The most perplexing guy on the roster today. What’s with that entrance he does? What does “King of Strong Style” mean? Why should I care about this guy? Despite me not having the answers to these questions, people seem to like him, I don’t get it.

Finn Bálor: Another one that is “all entrance and nothing else”. Rumor has it that Vince McMahon thinks he is bland. I wonder what took the old man so long to figure that out?

Baron Corbin: Seems to be hanging on to his push pretty well. A former André The Giant Battle Royal and Money in the Bank winner, he could surprise here.

Favorites to win:

Roman Reigns: Will headline WrestleMania whether he wins or not. Remains to be seen if they want him to get booed out of Philly for a second time after winning the Royal Rumble. Sounds like a stubborn Vince McMahon move to me.

Randy Orton: Won last year’s rumble, had a horrific match at WrestleMania 33 against Bray Wyatt.

Bray Wyatt: Was in the same boat as Orton last year, maybe he gets to redeem himself this year.

The Miz: The best heel in WWE right now and former WrestleMania headliner. It could be his year.

John Cena: Needs one more championship to surpass Ric Flair’s career total. He’s part time now, so WrestleMania is as good a time as any. Unless the rumors are true and he’s slated to work with The Undertaker this April.

Also, to consider would be some NXT callups making the match, and we might also see returning veterans who are no longer full-time wrestlers get involved. Or maybe a leading independent wrestler, or someone tied to TNA or NJPW will make a surprise debut in the rumble.

Prediction: Winner, The MIz

A lot of things can happen in the Rumble match that set up other feuds or angles for the next two months headed into WrestleMania. With a ruckus Philly crowd, the energy in the room should be good. Despite the creative quagmire the WWE is in right now, this could turn out to be a great show, despite the Women’s Rumble!

I remember someone telling me that “this house has good bones” before I bought it. As it turns out, when we stripped the walls out, we found out that the bones weren’t all that great. The point is moot because we ripped out most of the “bones” and threw them in the trash.

This all seems like so long ago. Quick recap of the timeline:

September 2014: I decide to start looking for a house.

October 2015: I found what I wanted and put an offer down.

December 2015: We close on the house and I now own it. Piece of cake, should be done with everything and moved in at worst by November 2016, right?

March 2016: We submit final drawings and plans to Union City.

September 2016: After several iterations, Union City grants us building permits.

October 2016: Demolition begins. Following that is excavation and masonry in the front and back of the house.

September 2017: Masonry and demolition is complete. Yes, that phase of the project took a year.

October 2017: Framing begins.

November 2017: Framing is complete, roof is installed.

Several other people have told me that they can’t believe how patient I am. Maybe I wear it well, but I don’t feel patient at all. If they were mind readers, they’d know that I’m ready to rip my hair out and jump in the Hudson River. It’s been over three years since I decided that I wanted to buy a house and leave my Hoboken apartment. Here I sit in front of the keyboard in my condo with a baby crying on the other side of my living room wall.

However, there is a huge bright side to this story, and as frustrated as I’ve been, I’ve never been more excited about this project. As per item #9 above, the framing is done! I can now walk around in the house and see what it really looks like after staring at plans for over a year. I can officially exclaim that this house really does have good bones!

Not only that, but once the framing is done, we can move forward on everything else that needs to be done, and we can start working on several things in parallel. I’m no longer at the mercy of my friend, the mason, who was holding the entire project up.

Building the Frame

Framing is a much more straight-forward and streamlined process than masonry work, as I learned. The framers tend to show up and stay on the job site until most everything is done. The bulk of the work took about three weeks, with a few things that needed to be done at the end that were based on decisions we made as things were built.

I opened an account with Kuiken Brothers, who would supply the framing materials and supplies. The framer would call in orders to Kuiken as needed, and they would deliver everything immediately.

The house was partially demolished, and we preserved the east and west walls of the existing frame. The north wall, facing the back yard, was demolished completely before the framer started. The south wall on the front of the house stayed in place and was dismantled as the frame went up. The floor between the first and second floors had to be demolished in parts while bracing the existing east and west walls so they would not collapse while the new frame was being built.

The first floor of the frame taking shape

The first floor of the frame taking shape in the front of the house. The old front wall was demolished as the new front wall was built.

The second floor as it is being built. This is the view from the master bedroom.

The first floor as it is being built. The existing frame had to be braced while the new one was being built around it.

The house is sheathed in Georgia-Pacific DensGlass Sheathing. This is to get the house in-line with current fire code. It will prevent fires that start inside the house from spreading outside for a short while. The new frame is sheathed entirely in DensGlass. It was also applied to the outside of the existing frame.

DensGlass Sheathing surrounding and fireproofing the house.

A temporary staircase was built between the first and second floor. The existing floor joists between the basement and the first floor were re-used and “sistered” to the new floor joists that were installed. The reconfiguration allowed us to make room to build a wider staircase than the one that was there. The existing staircase was maybe a foot and a half wide, you had to walk up and down it sideways. It was very unsafe and certainly not up to any kind of modern building code.

The old joists (the dark one) were sistered to the new floor joists in the basement.

The finished basement staircase, much safer and wider than the old one.

As the frame went up, I was finally able to walk around inside the house to get a feel for the size and layout. I had a very good idea after having stared at the drawings for so long, but that is not the same as being inside of it in real life.

The open layout of the first floor is strikingly large in contrast to my current apartment. All in, the first floor is about 200 square feet bigger than my entire apartment, including my bedroom. There are just two rooms: the bathroom, and everything else! There is no separation between the living room, dining room, and kitchen. This is a distinctive feature that I insisted on from the beginning and I’m very excited to actually see it in person.

A clean view of the first floor with it’s open floor plan.

The second floor is going to have an interesting look and feel to it as well. It is divided into three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a linen closet, a hallway, and a washer/dryer closet.

The bedroom in the front of the house facing south has two large window cut outs, two closets, and a ceiling that slopes downward from south to north. The decision was made to slope the ceiling as the house was being framed, the architect noted that there was space to do it once he saw how the frame was taking shape. It is going to be a rather large space and has a lot of potential for various uses.

The middle bedroom and main bathroom will be ordinarily shaped with level ceilings. The middle bedroom had just enough space between my house and the neighbors (something like three feet and an inch) to be allowed to have a window by fire code. Had it not had enough space for a window, technically it wouldn’t count as a bedroom.

The master bedroom is also very uniquely shaped. It begins at the extension of the house so the roof was raised and then sloped downward towards the back of the house. Therefore, the ceiling will be sloped in the same direction. It comes with a walk in closest and a bathroom. The bathroom will have a walk-in shower and a window facing the back yard.

The frame taking shape on the second floor. This is the view from the master bedroom facing the front of the house.

Time to Make Some Decisions

Once the house is framed, you can proceed with pretty much everything else that needs to be done in the house. You can take a look at the frame and decide if the plans are going to work out, or if you have to make adjustments to the design.

One of the first things we had to decide was how to heat and cool the house. My GC brought in a trusted HVAC guy he’s been working with for years. I was a little late getting to our initial meeting at the job site and they had started without me.

The drawings stated that the house would be heated with forced air and centrally cooled in a two-zone system through ducts. The first thing the HVAC guy said was that there was no room for ducts in the plans and that we’d have to make adjustments.

The first suggestion the HVAC guy made was to consider a ductless mini-split system. This system would include several outdoor heating and cooling units mounted on the sides and back of the house, and they would be attached by hose to wall mounted indoor units placed throughout the house. The indoor units would protrude from the walls and would be programmable by remote control.

The mini-split system comes with a major drawback, in that in extremely cold weather, they won’t be able to heat the house well enough. So, we would have to also install baseboard heating as a backup for the mini-split system.

The mini-splits also don’t have any kind of smart interface to them. So, I would never be able to use my Amazon Echo to control the temperature, I would have to use the remote controls.

Given the design aesthetic, the lack of a programmable interface, and the need for a secondary heating system, I wasn’t very enthused with this plan.

An idea that I had coming into the discussion was to use heated floors, sometimes called radiant heating. This is a way to hook up a system of tubes that carry hot water throughout the sub-flooring just below the finished floorboards. This is an extremely energy-efficient method of heating. It is virtually invisible throughout the finished section of the house as it is below the floors and doesn’t require any vents. From an aesthetic standpoint, this is the best way to go.

Unfortunately, heated floors come with a very high upfront cost. They would also require a separate cooling system be installed. My contractor eventually priced out this option and it was a budget-buster so I had to say no.

The HVAC guy said something interesting to me while we were discussing options. He asked if I liked an industrial look to the house. I asked him why he asked that. He then floated the idea of using exposed spiral ductwork throughout the house. The ducts wouldn’t be hidden, but would instead become decorative and part of the design aesthetic.

I immediately loved the idea. For some reason, I had daydreamed about the possibility of having exposed ducts in the house, but had never seriously considered them as an option until he brought it up. We walked through what it would look like and how it would be built and I was sold on the idea.

The aim now is to have one heating and cooling unit on the roof for the upstairs zone. There will be one air-compressor on the roof, and we’ll also have a heating unit and an air-handler in the basement for the downstairs zone.

In order to make this work, we needed to make a compromise to the original design. We had to find two square feet of floor space in order for the ducts to come in and out of the basement. We decided to move the downstairs bathroom two feet into the living room area to accommodate this need. It’s not a very big loss, there wasn’t anything planned for that space anyway.

We had the HVAC guy pull the cut sheets for the roof units so the framer could build the mounts for them on the roof. With the architect’s blessing, we made the appropriate changes to the design and prepared the house for this system to be installed at a later time.

Making it Water-Tight

Once the frame is done, the next step is to make the house water-tight. This will enable everything else to move forward. This includes the roof, windows and doors, and the siding on the outside of the house.

The roof facing the front of the house. The platform is for the heating/cooling unit.

The Windows

We had decided on Marvin Integrity All-Ultrex windows after a lengthy comparison shopping process. They had been specified and ordered a long time ago, and were waiting around in a Kuiken Brothers warehouse somewhere for us to call them and say it was time to install. Once the roof was in place, it was OK to have the windows delivered and installed.

This was exciting for me as it was the first finishing touch we’ve applied to the house. I got to see what the finished product looked like once they were put in.

My friends from Kuiken Brothers delivering the windows.

The windows and the front door are installed on the front of the house.

The Doors

The doors became an interesting decision to make. The architect stated the that height of the doors needed to match the height of the window cut outs for aesthetic purposes. This meant the doors had to be 90” tall. This is tricky as most doors are 80” tall. You can’t even really google 90” doors, virtually nothing pops up.

I found a few samples for the front door that I liked on Houzz to give my GC a few ideas, but we couldn’t find one in my size. He took a look at one of the pictures I sent him and he came up with an idea. He thought he could get a very cheap door with no markings on it fabricated as a special order for very cheap. Later on, we can hang decorative markings on it and paint it to somewhat match the picture I showed him. So, we ran with that idea and ordered a plain 90” door.

The back door was a little different. We decided to go with a standard door with a glass panel in the middle to get some more natural light in the house. We picked one from the Thermatru line of doors. In order to match the 90” height, we had it shipped with a custom-built transom window above it.

The windows and the back door are installed on the back of the house.

The basement door was a standard-build, as simple as it gets. It just needs to function, it doesn’t have to be pretty.

The Ancient Art of Japanese Siding?

The drawings were rather vague when it came to the siding on the front of the house. It just said something about cedar planks shaped with tongue-and-groove connectors in the front and the back, and vinyl siding for the sides of the house. My contractor called the architect to ask him what he had in mind for the decorative siding in the front. The architect asked the contractor if he was sitting down.

The architect then proceeded to explain that he wanted to use Shou Sugi Ban siding. Shou Sugi Ban is an ancient Japanese method of charring cedar planks with fire to prepare them for use. The planks have an interesting look to them, and the treatment also makes them more fire resistant.

Well, the GC and I had never heard of this, and my architect had never used them on any of his projects before either. But this was the way he dreamed up my project and I’ve trusted his judgment thus far so we got to work in researching this possibility.

First thing we did was to Google it, of course. Shou Sugi Ban pretty much consists of three steps:

Burn the wood with a torch

Brush it off by hand

Treat it with some kind of oil finish

We also found a few places that sell pre-made Shou Sugi Ban siding planks. One is in Texas, the other in Pennsylvania.

The architect was so excited about seeing this come to life, that he volunteered to help us practice making these boards. So, we all met at my contractor’s house and got started. The contractor bought a blow torch that hooks into a regular propane tank and a few samples of tongue and groove cedar planks.

Working on the rough side of the planks, we charred them with the torch. It didn’t take very long at all for the planks to turn black. If we held the torch in place for just a bit longer, the surface would start to crack in a pattern that resembled alligator skin.

That gas tank isn’t just for BBQ! It is also for making Shou Sugi Ban siding!

The contractor had also stained some planks black as a control group to hold next to our Shou Sugi Ban samples. We held them next to each other and could see the difference. There was more color depth in the charred boards, and the alligator texture gave it a very interesting look.

Next, we brushed the charred board off. The alligator skin cracks immediately came off, and the board reverted to a more brown-like color. This wasn’t the look we wanted at all, so we rejected the idea of brushing the boards off.

The problem became to figure out how to preserve the alligator skin cracks on the boards. We figured that if they brushed off so easily, they’d weather off right away when we hung them on the house. So, we applied two coats of polyurethane to one of the boards, drying it quickly with a heat gun after each coat.

We took that sample and rubbed it with our fingers. No residue came off and it looked like the two coats of poly did the trick. The board held on to the color and texture we wanted, and it had a nice shine to it as well. All we had to do was to remove step #2 from the traditional process and we had the look we wanted.

We put the sample board down next to some vinyl siding samples and settled on one of them that matched best. The vinyl siding will wrap most of the sides of the house, and maybe the back. We’re considering Shou Sugi Ban planks for the back of the house if they aren’t cost prohibitive.

The very bottom of this sample board is the Shou Sugi Ban we are looking for. The rest of the house will be wrapped in vinyl siding in the “Misty Shadow” color shown here.

We’re going to price everything out this week, including getting a quote from the millshop in Pennsylvania that sells these types of planks off-the-shelf. With any luck, we have a decision made early in the week and we can get the siding started shortly thereafter.

Next Up

Following the completion of the siding, we will start on the rough plumbing work. This will require some final decisions on the layout of the kitchen and bathrooms. This will include all of the various water fixtures (faucets, pot fillers, shower heads, etc.) so we can buy the rough-in valves that go behind the walls.

I reached out to my kitchen designer and we picked up the work we had started a year ago. I went back to the showroom and refreshed my picks for the water fixtures throughout the house. I also refreshed my wish list for kitchen appliances as well. This was all my designer needed to get started on planning the final layouts for the kitchen and bathrooms. When this is done, we can mark off where the valves need to go so the plumber can install them.

Bottom line is that we are moving at a faster pace than we ever have since the project started. I’m communicating with the designer, contractor, and architect almost every day and we are making design decisions as we go. The fun part is finally here! Now, I just need to start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still don’t have an ETA for completion and I have to continue to plan for the worst-case-scenario.

So, here’s something I didn’t know when I decided to gut-renovate a house. It takes almost an entire calendar year to finish partial demolition and masonry work. We started in October 2016, and as of the time of this writing, we are getting ready to start the framing of the house in October 2017!

What took so long? Well, if you’ve been following my blog, the town was very difficult to deal with at first, and then I’ve been mired in construction delays. At times, I’ve wondered if I make a mistake by not completely demolishing the house. I probably could have gained efficiency if the old structure wasn’t in place and then we would have had enough room to bring machinery in to assist in the excavation process. It’s hard to tell exactly what the cost and time difference would have been had I done that, but we did get to save most of the original structure, so that should be worth something.

We Have a Drainage System

In June, we dug a trench where the old clay pipe drainage system used to be. Apparently, the sewer connection is somewhere behind the house, not in front of it. We were able to locate the connection, and hook the new PVC pipe system into it.

The drainage system in the front driveway

Once the new drainage system was built, we had to call in the town to inspect before we could cover it back up and fill it in. It took about 4 days lead time to call the inspector in. He failed us due to the way the pipes were configured, I never got the exact detail why. The plumber had to fix the problem and we had to get the inspector back in seven days.

All of the sewage connections in the house come together in the garage

Just like that, an entire week was lost. This may not seem like a big deal, but this is typical of a project. A three-day setback here, a week setback there, a three-week setback for some reason. It all adds up to major, major time lapses in between actual work. I’ve come to learn that watching your construction project sit idle for any amount of time is a special kind of torture that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

Let’s Button It Up

After we finally passed the inspection of the drainage system, we were able to build the basement floor. We backfilled the dirt over the pipes and filled in the trenches. We put a plastic sheet down over the dirt and then built a rebar mesh on top of that. That required yet another inspection, one which we passed on the first try.

The drainage trough at the foot of the driveway

The plastic membrane and rebar

The plastic membrane and rebar

It took a few weeks for the mason to come back, of course, but when he did, he poured concrete over the rebar and plastic, and I finally had a finished basement floor!

View of the fresh coat of cement from the driveway

The fresh cement in the rear addition of the house

More Demolition

Once the floor was poured, my general contractor called in the framer so he could get ready to get started. They also called in my architect to walk through the plans together and get on the same page. One of the things they reviewed was the remaining demolition work that needed to be done. The house needs to be demolished in stages so the remaining shell can stay in place without collapsing during construction.

Making a big mess out front

For reasons that weren’t too clear to me, we still hadn’t done a lot of the work that the framer required in order to start. It could have been done while we had some downtime in between inspections, but it didn’t happen.

Somebody noticed that there was concrete between the garage and first floor that had to be demolished. I don’t know why we didn’t learn this sooner. So, they had to put plywood down on my brand-new garage floor and demolished the concrete, making a mess of the basement again.

This is now on top of my new basement floor! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

They had to demolish the original brick chimney while they were at it. That was another bit of work that could have been done much earlier. Finally, they had to strip the outside and inside of the house to the studs and plywood. When it was all done and cleared out, there wasn’t much left but the outer shell of the house, and the ceiling and floor between the first and second floors. The house was finally in a condition to be framed.

What’s left of the chimney

The spaces in between the joists were where the cement was between the first floor and the basement. Nobody noticed it was here until we had finished the basement floor. It had to be removed because it was potentially damaging to the joists.

The hole to the sky where the chimney used to be

What is now left of the front of the house. The garage door is gone, replaced temporarily with that blue tarp.

All that is left of the second floor. Only the outer shell and the roof will remain. The floor will be completely ripped out.

OK, So Let’s Get Started

In late August, my GC e-mailed me to tell me the framer was going to start on September 20. We had a week or so of demolition left and the house would be ready to go long before the start date. Naturally, I called him right away to tell him we needed to move that date in. He told me it wouldn’t be possible because the framing guy was working another job. I told him that I really needed the house to be framed before the winter set in. He emphatically stated that it would take at most two weeks to frame the house and I didn’t have anything to worry about.

September 20 approached and the GC told me the start date was now going to be September 21. Then the framer declared that because it was a Thursday so we might as well start the next Monday. I didn’t follow that logic at all, but I wasn’t going to flip out about four more days wait.

On Monday, I texted the GC and asked him if we were starting. Heard nothing back that day. On Tuesday he texted me and said he was aware I was waiting for an answer and I’d hear back from him by the end of the day. No word for the rest of the day or all of Wednesday. Thursday, I called and got him on the phone. He told me he was very embarrassed, but the framer wasn’t going to take the job.

Things took an interesting turn after that. I repeated my original deadline that the house had to be framed before the winter or the project would be in serious jeopardy. I would at some point just run out of money, having to pay two mortgages. I’m already well over 10 months past my projected worst-case scenario of being done from when I bought the house in December, 2015.

My GC proceeded to get very worked up in explaining to me that he’d figure something out. He said he was embarrassed and upset about the situation and he felt that his entire reputation was on the line. I ended up having to calm him down and tell him not to get bent out of shape. It was almost as if our positions were juxtaposed. I should be the one that is bent out of shape!

I started to consider my options in order of preference:

Wait for my GC to find a new framer

Find my own framer

Fire the GC and quickly find someone else

Stop making mortgage payments and let the bank foreclose on the house

Each option had pros and cons. At that point, as much as I like the guy, my confidence in my GC was pretty much shot. I didn’t have a framer or a new GC in mind and it would be difficult to make a big change like that given my time constraints at work. The fourth option was a nuclear one, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. I’d lose about 15 years of savings with everything I’ve put into the project so far and my credit would be ruined. But I’d stop the bleeding. I wouldn’t need my credit rating anymore because it would be years before I could save up enough to try again.

Anyway, on Friday, I got a series of text messages from the GC that he had found a new guy and that he might be able to start next week. They met at the house that day, and by Saturday, we had a quote from him. After a day of pondering my options, the first one looks like it was going to work out.

I have it in writing that it should take the new framer about three weeks to finish, and that includes installing the windows that I ordered in August. The framer has a job he needs to start right after that, so he is incentivized to hurry up!

In a way, this is almost too good to believe that we found a reputable guy just in time that has nothing else better to do for the next three weeks. But, this is pretty much my best choice right now. So, on Monday, we are going to order $16,000 worth of lumber from Kuiken Brothers, and we are going to get started.

How Did It Come to This?

When I started this blog, I had figured that it would be an interesting story about design decisions, construction, and decorating the house over the course of many years. I thought I would be living in the house by the end of 2016, and would have sold my Hoboken condo, rolling the proceeds from the sale into a much smaller mortgage on the new house. Instead, this blog has turned into an infrequent, long-winded complaint about not much getting done!

I don’t live life with regrets. I believe in taking measured risks in order to get better outcomes for yourself. This was definitely a risk, and so far, it has not worked out at all. I am certainly not going to say I regret this decision, I know that I wouldn’t have been happy had I simply stayed in my small Hoboken apartment with no eye towards the future. But, this certainly now falls into the category of a BAD IDEA! I’m never going to make up all the money I lost paying the double mortgage for so long, and as of this writing, I can’t see how it’s even going to get done before 2019, a full three years and more after I bought the place.

This is a pivotal week. If they start framing the house and come even close to their self-imposed three-week deadline for completion, my whole outlook will change. I’ll be in a position to tell my contractor that he’d better have someone working on this job every single day until it is done! All work can proceed on the house once the framing is complete, and weather will no longer be an issue.

Following WrestleMania each year, the WWE tends to find itself in a bit of a creative slump over the summer. This year is no different. There are very few hot wrestlers or exciting angles on WWE TV right now. Battleground was critically panned as one of the worst pay-per-views of the year.

The WWE is looking to break out of the malaise when it invades Brooklyn this weekend for the 30th annual SummerSlam event. As is always the case since the dawn of the WWE Network (without PPV time limits), this is a very crowded card with 13 matches, inclusive of the three on the pre-show. There are a few matches with promise, and a few that will have to exceed expectations to become memorable.

Cesaro and Sheamus (c) vs. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins in a Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are back together after three years as adversaries following the breakup of The Shield. The story behind their reunion was entertaining and compelling. Even more importantly, this angle sets things up for one of them to turn on the other in time for a match at WrestleMania next April! But in the here and now, the WWE fans are very excited to see them back together and will be hot for them during this match.

Having gone as far as they could in their careers as singles competitors, veterans Cesaro and Sheamus have re-invented themselves as tag-team competitors. They are serviceable heels, and do a good job of keeping interest in the tag title championship by having the babyfaces chase them. This matchup has the potential to steal the show.

Prediction: Winners and still WWE Raw Tag Team Champions, Cesaro and Sheamus

Finn Bálor vs. Bray Wyatt

Finn Bálor returns to the building where he simultaneously became the first ever WWE Universal Champion and broke his shoulder at last year’s SummerSlam. As far as I can tell, he’s nothing more than a puny guy with an elaborate entrance who wears body paint once or twice a year. Kind of like half of an Undertaker but like 1/25th as good as the Undertaker.

Bray Wyatt finally had his chance this year when he defended his first WWE Championship. He blew it with a crappy match against Randy Orton and his weeks-long title run will be forever remembered for how badly it ended. He hasn’t had much momentum since.

We just saw this match on Raw this week, but it was only to set up the reasoning behind Bálor deciding to wear his body paint for their SS match. Wyatt won the first one, it would be a shame to see a 50/50 booking and give the win straight back to Bálor.

Prediction: Winner, Bray Wyatt

Big Show vs. Big Cass in a Singles Match with Enzo Amore suspended above the ring in a shark cage

The WWE must really like the shark cage gimmick as it was used earlier this year at the Royal Rumble with Chris Jericho trapped inside of it. Either that, or they spent a lot of money on it and are looking for a good return on investment.

Big Cass and Enzo Amore were a hot tag team, buoyed by a unique appearance, in-ring chemistry, and an entrance cadence that the audience loved to participate in. When they predictably broke up a few months ago, their momentum fell flat and nobody seems to care about either one of them anymore.

The Big Show is always a dependable veteran. This was an obvious match up between the two tallest men in the WWE. There aren’t going to be too many moonsaults and frog-splashes in this match!

Prediction: Winner, The Big Show

Randy Orton vs. Rusev

Two once-promising guys turned lazy in a match with virtually no build-up. Beer break.

Prediction: Winner, Rusev

AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens in a Singles match for the WWE United States Championship. Shane McMahon will serve as special guest referee

As uninteresting as the Orton/Rusev match will be, the Styles/Owens match should be intriguing. These two are among the most charismatic individuals to hit the WWE in the last several years. More importantly, they are both innovators in the ring. Their matches tend to always be among the best on any given card. Throw in special guest referee, Shane McMahon, who wrestled Styles at WrestleMania earlier this year, and now has heat with KO, and you have an additional combustible element in the mix. This should be a match to remember that has repercussions into the next pay per view.

A star was born when Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship from out of nowhere earlier this year. It was a surprise move, one that you don’t see very often. He had no lower singles championship, no memorable promo or catchphrase, and no signature match on his resume prior to his big win against Randy Orton. The decision to put the strap on Mahal was a controversial one with most fans who thought he wasn’t deserving or ready. But, I’m a big fan of Jinder. He’s got a good look, is good on the microphone, runs a heel stable, and is fun to watch.

Shinsuke Nakamura, however, appears to be in over his head in the WWE. Similarly to Bálor, he seems like he is nothing more than a guy with a big entrance. What’s with these guys from NXT who come pre-packaged with these long entrances, anyway? Is that all that is entertaining to fans anymore?

Nakamura was expected to be on the fast track to WWE Champion when me made the main roster the week after WrestleMania this year. He had a reputation as a top-performer in Japan and in NXT here in the US. Thus far into his WWE run, he’s been pretty lackluster and hasn’t done much to impress anybody. He’s like a .330 hitter in AAA who can’t hit a major league slider and hits .215 when he gets the call to the big leagues. He may have looked good in comparison to the rest of the talent in the lower rungs of professional wrestling, but isn’t anything special compared to the best wrestlers in the world in the WWE.

Who thought it was a good idea to have two divas matches on the same card?

Prediction: Could be even worse than the Naomi/Natalya match

John Cena vs. Baron Corbin

Baron Corbin has been on the verge of breaking out for quite some time. His latest push had him win Money in The Bank earlier this year, but bizarrely lost the cash-in match on Smackdown this past week. That was a curious booking decision and it didn’t do him any favors.

John Cena, even in his part-time capacity, and at the age of 40, is still the best wrestler in the world right now. He gets better with age and can put a good match together with anybody. He’ll also do business, he will put guys over if it is the right thing to do for a storyline or character advancement. Make sure you are in your seat for this match.

This is the most intriguing match of the card, with a diverse set of competitors. All four men have different backgrounds and stories, and are at different stages of their careers, but the one thing they have in common is super-human size and strength.

Samoa Joe is the newest to the WWE main roster, having made a huge impact since his debut in March. This will already be his second pay-per-view main event. He is a real underdog story, having wrestled in every other promotion in the world until his late 30’s when he was finally given a chance in the WWE. Since then, the fans have connected with his character, a bruising, unapologetic, bully

Braun Strowman has steadily improved these past twelve months since he split off from The Wyatt Family. He plays the part of a monster heel, but the fans have steadily rallied behind him anyway, mainly because his chief foil has been Roman Reigns.

Brock Lesnar continues to do what he does best, and that is to act like a beast. The added stipulation of him leaving the WWE if he loses the title could set him up for a lengthy absence, perhaps to return to the UFC octagon. Or, it could mean nothing if he retains the title.

Roman Reigns stinks. He never improves. He just reads whatever dumb lines the WWE writers hand him with all the emotion of the worst actor in the 5th grade play. I’ll give you $1 if you can name me one classic singles match he’s ever been in.

This match can go in any direction. There could be a strong case to put the title on Joe or Strowman to give one of the fledgling newcomers a title run. The Lesnar leaves town stipulation could be a swerve and he could be slated to win. There is always the horrible specter of another Roman Reigns title win hanging over us as well. Nothing else to do to but sit back and watch. But as an analyst, I’ll take a shot at a prediction.

“Hey man, how’s your house? You moved in yet? I haven’t seen one of your blog posts in a while”.

This line of questioning is all my fault. I’m the one that told everybody I knew that I bought a house in December, 2015 and planned to renovate it. I made matters worse by blogging about and sharing it on Facebook. I drew all kinds of attention to the subject so I deserve the litany of questions that go along with it.

The only problem is that I have had virtually no answer to that question for the better part of 2017. This past winter was brutal for my project. We started in October of 2016 and hit a number of roadblocks right away. Not much can progress on the house until the masonry in front and back is complete. Only when that is done can the house be framed and the rest of the work can start.

There is a whole litany of reasons the project moved so slowly, fitting mainly into three categories: Difficulty with inspections from the town, bad weather, and delays with the mason. Weeks would go by with no progress at all, leaving me with an empty feeling of helplessness as my bank account was draining with nothing to show for it.

In January, there was some progress on the rear addition. The footings were approved and the mason started to lay cinder blocks with a duro-bond wire in between every other layer. Once that was done, my contractor called the building inspector and asked him to approve the rear addition. On February 3, the inspector gave us our first inspection failure.

My first inspection failure. I think I’ll frame the original.

The basis of the failure was somewhat unclear at the time. It seemed to hinge on a somewhat confusing conversation that the inspector and my contractor had. First, the inspector said that we needed to check to make sure the foundation was built with the proper setbacks from the neighboring properties in accordance with the approved plans. The contractor asked if that meant we had to have the property surveyed right away. The inspector said that would do, or we could get a letter from my architect saying that we were building according to his design.

The second reason we failed was because the inspector wanted proof that we put the duro-bond where it belonged and that we doweled into the existing wall properly. My contractor said that we had pictures and that the architect was supervising the project and could attest that we were in accordance with the building code. The contractor pointed out that the only to prove everything would have been to have the inspector visit after every layer of cinder block was installed!

I’m telling you, bro, we really did layer the blocks properly!

It was kind of hard to prove once the walls were built.

The view from the back looking towards the front of the house

We proceeded to get a letter from the architect explaining that everything was built according to plan and we sent that to the building inspectors office. We really didn’t know at the time if that was going to be good enough, so we prepared to move on with building the drainage system.

The project had stalled a bit being early February. The weather was poor and the mason didn’t have much of a window to work outside. My contractor told me that he was going to meet with the mason on February 20 to discuss moving forward with the project. I asked if he could let me know what time he was going to be there so I could meet them both. I had that day off of work for President’s Day.

On the morning of the scheduled meeting, my contractor texted me and asked me to give him a call. He said that the contractor was on an unannounced two-week vacation to Peru. Of course, the weather broke and those two weeks were very temperate for that time of year, it would have been good enough for the masonry crew to continue on.

About three weeks after the supposed two-week vacation started, the mason announced he was going to return to the job. That day it snowed and he couldn’t come. The snow was heavy and froze over and set us back again. All told, from the time of the failed inspection on February 3, we lost about 8 weeks to weather and the mason’s vacation before he was able to start back on the project in earnest.

The Drainage System

As I explained in a previous blog post, we had to build a pretty elaborate drainage system around the extension in back of the house. We were required to drain all rain water into the sewer connection. This is the opposite of what most municipalities want you to do, typically you are not supposed to overload the sewer system with rain water. Union City works in mysterious ways.

We also had to fill in the trenches around the extension with rocks to aid in drainage around the outside of the house. Since we couldn’t get machinery through the alley between my house and the neighbor, the masonry crew had to use shovels and a wheelbarrow to fill the rocks in around the house.

That trench is where the rainwater drainpipe will be.

One of the rainwater drainpipes in it’s fancy rocky bedding.

An idea of the scale of the excavation we had to do to make room for the pipe. The masons made this pile of dirt with buckets, one by one.

The pipes in the aforementioned trench.

Front Masonry

The front of the house wasn’t nearly as elaborate as the job in the backyard. We aren’t extending the house in the front, but we are building a second story where the original mud room front porch was. This required first that we demolish the mud room and check the existing foundation to see if the footings were deep enough. On the left side of the house, the footing was deep enough to pass inspection. On the right of the house, there was no footing at all, requiring us to demolish the existing wall and excavate enough ground to pour one.

Nope, no footing in here. WTH?

So, we just poured our own footing. Better make sure it is 42″ deep, not just 36″. Don’t want the house to fall over!!!

And we have a new wall in front.

The dangerous front steps were also slated for replacement. They were demolished and the skeleton of the new steps were put in place. They seem to be a lot more even and less deadly than the old set of steps. They still need to be finished with concrete. We’re not going to use any brick finishes, the design we are looking for is a simple one with a skim coat of stucco.

The hole where the old steps used to be.

The foundation of the new steps, all with uniform height!

The Inspector Is Our Friend Now?

Before we could backfill the backyard, we needed to have the inspector come and check out the drainage system. We also wanted him to review the front footings, the existing one we planned to retain, and the new one that we dug out. He no-showed our first window, telling my contractor while he was at the house waiting that he couldn’t make it. He made it the next day, and things went decidedly better than any of our previous inspections.

The inspector reviewed the drainage system in back and determined that it was adequate. He gave us the go ahead to back-fill the dirt back in the trenches without issue. There was, however a problem in the front. The new footing was only 36 inches deep, according to the plans and building code, it had to be 42 inches deep. The contractor realized there was a mistake but was taken aback by the response the inspector had. He told the contractor simply to dig the hole six inches deeper, send him a picture, and that we’d be good! From the explanation of the story that I got, I think my contractor nearly fainted from the shock of this act of kindness and common sense. This was the go-ahead we needed to build the new foundation wall on the right side of the house which was the last bit of foundation that needed to be built.

The backyard now that the trenches have been back-filled.

So, Where Exactly Does the Sewer Drain?

Now it was time to hook into the existing sewer connection as per our design. The mason ripped up the basement garage floor where the house trap is. We found a clay pipe that we originally thought drained out the front of the house to the sewer in the street. The plumber visited and pointed out that the pipe was pitched towards the back of the house.

The clay pipe, pitched down and away from the front of the house.

It turned out that the clay pipe was just a rainwater drain from the front of the basement and that the sewer pipe heads out the back of the house. We couldn’t figure out exactly which direction it heads. When we excavated the back extension, we never hit the pipe. It either took a sharp turn to the side under one of the neighbor’s houses, or went straight down. Whatever the case is, they tested it out with a hose and water seems to drain well through it, so who cares?

Hopefully this is the last “mystery” in this house. There’s going to be so little left of the original house that there shouldn’t be much guesswork with the rest of what we have to build since most of it will be from scratch.

The mason took out the existing machinery from the basement (none of which was working anyway) and excavated all the spots where we will run the drainpipes from upstairs. He also ripped out the clay pipe, we’re going to replace that with PVC piping. When it’s all done, there is going to be very little left of the original basement floor and I’ll have a nice new coat of concrete.

The remnants of the machine room, along with a trench for drainage.

What’s Next?

We started masonry work in October, 2016. As of mid-June 2017, we are almost done. I thought the entire house would take about that long to build, so feel free to call me a dumbass the next time you see me. Anyway, we can’t move forward with anything else until that is done.

All that is left is for the plumber to hook up all the drains from the inside and outside into the sewer connection. We will then ask for another inspection. If we should be lucky enough to pass, they can backfill the dirt in the basement. We will finally be able to start the framing process.

I met with the framer two weeks ago with my GC to over the project. When my contractor originally explained the process to me, he said that framing would take “one week, two max”. I asked the framer what his opinion was and he said it would take “three to four weeks”. So, I’m guessing it will take three months. If I’m lucky, he’ll be done by mid-October, but that’s only if I’m lucky, which I’m obviously not.

Is Your House Done Yet?

So, back to that original question. No, it’s not done, but now I think I have a better idea of where we are at. Once framing is done, everything else can get started, some of which can be done in parallel. There also won’t be weather delays for anything on the inside. We can put siding up, install windows, rough the electric and plumbing, put drywall and flooring in, and install the kitchen and bathroom fixtures and finishes. Piece of cake, right!

As you may recall, I closed on the house in December, 2015. I thought we’d have permits in a month or two, start building in March 2016, and be done in time for me to move in before New Year’s 2017. Given the pace we are at, and how long just the masonry phase has taken, I have a better idea of my estimated completion date. I think my best-case scenario at this point is December, 2018. That would be a full three years from when I bought the house.

This situation puts me in serious financial jeopardy. I budgeted for a year of paying two mortgages out of my savings, not three. Additionally, the bank I work for had to pay a $7.2 billion fine to the US Department of Justice in January as a result of some improprieties from 2005-2007. They had to cancel our bonus pool entirely, which was a nice kick in the gut on top of everything else. The assholes that broke the law are all gone from the bank, playing golf and spending the summer in their Hamptons mansions. Now I have to figure out how to make up that cash that I was desperately counting on coming in this year.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen other than I have to move forward. I can’t sell the place as-is, it is a shell right now. I can borrow against my current apartment in Hoboken which is the likely course of action. However, the plan all along was to sell my condo at the end and use the proceeds to refinance the jumbo mortgage I took out on the new house. Anything I borrow against my condo eats into the profit I will make when I sell, giving me less money to pay down the principal on the new mortgage, increasing what I’d have to borrow.

I can hope for the best, but there is a slim possibility that I will have to turn around and sell the new place immediately when it is finished. If that happens, some lucky person is going to get his or her hands on the best house in all of Union City.

I walked through the house yesterday, the entire property is a complete disaster. The backyard is a muddy mess, there are trenches in the basement, and the frame of the existing house is partially demolished and littered with debris. It was a “what was I thinking?” moment. But I regret nothing, I knew I was taking a risk and had bitten off more than I could chew. If I pull this off, I will be living in my dream house someday.

Just a crazy mess right now.

What’s left of the insides, the flooring was removed.

The clay pipe is gone, leaving this disaster of a trench inside the basement.

There’s a sliver lining to this dark cloud. Count on partying at my place in Hoboken on the first Saturday of March, 2018! It’ll be cramped as usual, but we always manage to fit somehow.

On the Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania 33, Vince McMahon proclaimed that the WWE is not lethargic and that the big wheel keeps on turning. Sure enough, in the immediate aftermath of the biggest event of the year in the WWE, a new set of storylines began, a number of talents were called up from NXT, and superstars were traded between the Raw and Smackdown brands. All of this was done with an eye towards selling us on a year’s worth of television, live events, and WWE Network subscriptions, leading into WrestleMania 34 in 2018.

Well, I have a spoiler alert for you. Roman Reigns is going to be in his fourth consecutive WrestleMania main event at next year’s big show, and he will walk out of the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans as a winner and a champion. Whether or not the rumors are true that there will be a repeat of the WrestleMania 31 main event with Reigns facing Brock Lesnar, it doesn’t change the situation. Reigns was anointed to be the face of the WWE for the duration of his career. His win over The Undertaker at WrestleMania was the figurative passing of the torch.

There is going to be a lot of hand-wringing from the fan base of the direction that Reign’s career is headed. It is a waste of time to point out all the flaws in his game and his overall lack of ability. We are stuck with him no matter what. Might as well enjoy booing the hell out of him every time he steps out of the curtain. It is somewhat cathartic.

While Reigns sits atop the food chain of the WWE these days, there are still lots of other compelling superstars to watch over the next year. The superstar shakeup has given us a chance to see some new matchups (except for the fact that Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are now on Smackdown together so they’ll probably wrestle each other 25,000 times between now and WM 34), and you never know what you’re going to get with the latest round of NXT callups to the main roster. Wrestling fans always love something new, and we are certainly going to get it.

The first Raw-themed pay-per-view since WrestleMania, Payback, takes place this Sunday and will pick up where WrestleMania left off. Several matches on the card are rematches from WrestleMania, or they are the continuation of stories that were part of the WrestleMania build up. Let’s take a look at what to expect.

Kevin Owens (c) vs. Chris Jericho in a Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship, if Jericho wins, he will be transferred to Smackdown

The WWE missed a great opportunity to wrap up Jericho’s career at WrestleMania. After a long and middling career that had been directionless for almost a decade, Jericho embarked on what was the best angle of his career when he was paired with Kevin Owens. Their month’s long program revolving around their on-and-off again friendship produced drama, comedy, suspense, and surprise. Jericho had never been so hot in his life. At age 46, it would have been the perfect time for him to lose in a “loser goes home” match to Owens at ‘Mania. He would have gone out at his absolute peak.

Instead, Jericho’s career persists with nowhere to go but down. Their match at WrestleMania was a serviceable effort, carried mainly by the younger and more talented Owens. Chances are that this rematch will be a fun one to watch as it will likely blow off their feud for good and they will want to go out with a bang.

Prediction: Winner and still WWE United States Champion, Kevin Owens

The Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) (c) vs, Cesaro and Sheamus in a Tag Team Match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy returned home to the WWE to a hero’s welcome at WrestleMania 33 with their surprise entrance into the Raw Tag Team Championship match. The Attitude Era holdovers enjoyed a successful run on the independent circuit of late and drove the crowd into a frenzy with their win.

What many probably don’t realize is that the Hardy Boyz used to lose during the Attitude Era. A lot. They hardly ever won a pay-per-view match in their heyday. They were known as the team that could deliver high spots, but never come out on top. Their win at WrestleMania was a surprise in that respect.

Cesaro and Sheamus continue to be a tag team of convenience. The WWE didn’t know what to do with them as singles competitors anymore, so they were paired up as a babyface/heel combination. This match gives them the opportunity to show what they can do as tag team competitors facing the veteran Hardy Boyz for the first time.

Prediction: Winners and still WWE Raw Tag Team Champions, The Hardy Boyz

Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt in a House of Horrors Match

While I am always reluctant to declare a match as one or the best or worst in WrestleMania history without giving it a few years to look back on things, the jury is out on the Orton/Wyatt match at WrestleMania. The verdict is that match sucked, and it could go down as one of the bigger failures we’ve ever seen in WrestleMania history.

The WWE tried to use special effects to bolster the visual effect of the occult-like abilities of Bray Wyatt during the match. It failed to captivate the audience when a projector suddenly showed images of bugs and grubs on the ring mat at various points during the match. In fact, someone at my WrestleMania yelled at the TV “They’re just using a projector! How dumb is that?”

The end result was not good for Bray Wyatt’s legacy. He is now 0-3 at WrestleMania and will forever be associated with this dud of a WrestleMania match. Randy Orton didn’t come out of it looking too great, either.

This House of Horrors match between the two is shrouded somewhat in mystery. It is a stipulation we have never seen before, and it will likely build on some special effects, similar to what we saw at WrestleMania. Given how poorly that worked out, I wouldn’t expect this match to be much better. Besides, Bray Wyatt never wins big matches, why should we care about him?

The bar was set very low for the WWE Women’s division before Bayley arrived. She somehow managed to lower it a great deal, and that is no small feat. Awful gimmick, awful look, and awful wrestling.

Prediction: This match is going to suck

Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe is a fresh addition to Monday Night Raw. Already in his late 30’s, he doesn’t have much more of a shelf life in the professional wrestling business, so it is go-time for the big man. I like what they are doing with his character, presenting him as a hit-man for The Authority. It gives him a chance to do some nice heel work, and pair well with the babyfaces on the Raw roster.

Seth Rollins has never regained the momentum he lost as a heel champion in 2015 before he broke his knee and missed an extended period of time, including WrestleMania 32. He isn’t a natural babyface and worked much better as an arrogant and cowardly heel. This matchup against Samoa Joe, however, could end up being the match of the night. The two veterans are capable of putting on a compelling match. Certainly, Samoa Joe will want to make an impression in his WWE pay-per-view debut match.

Prediction: Winner, Samoa Joe

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

I’ve said my piece about Roman Reigns at the beginning of this blog, and in pretty much every other blog post I’ve done over the past several years. I’m getting tired of repeating myself.

The shame of it is that Reigns is killing Strowman’s momentum and credibility, just at a time when Strowman was starting to get good and be recognized by the fans. The WWE did a fantastic job of building Strowman to be a monster heel over the second half of 2016, and he has shown constant improvement over the last year.

Unfortunately, Strowman had been used as the sacrificial lamb to get Reigns ready for his eventual win against The Undetaker at WrestleMania 33. When he lost to Reigns at Fastlane, he lost a lot of his shine. He recovered a lot of it with his vicious (and somewhat funny) beat down of Reigns on Raw a few weeks ago, that included him turning over an ambulance that Reigns was in!

All of that is going to be lost, when yet again, he jobs to Reigns. I really wish that they had picked someone else for this spot and left Strowman off the card altogether. It doesn’t benefit Strowman to be in this position at all, there is no way he is going to come out of this looking good when he loses, yet again, to Reigns.

Prior to WrestleMania 33, the last time WrestleMania was held at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL was WrestleMania XXIV in 2008. The most memorable match of that night was Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair as it was Flair’s last match in the WWE. The running storyline was that Vince McMahon told Flair that Flair would have to retire should he lose a match. So, it was pretty obvious that Michaels was going to win the match, sending Flair into retirement. We could see it coming, but it was a very emotional and sad moment for fans of The Dirtiest Player in the Game.

Headed into WrestleMania 33, there were rumors that The Undertaker could be retiring soon, but nothing was confirmed. We also didn’t know the ordering of the matches on the card, with many speculating that the Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg match would end the show. There weren’t loud rumors that Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns would close the be the final match of the night.

The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns match was difficult to watch for many reasons. First off, Roman Reigns stinks and has virtually no command of the crowd with his limited offensive move set. Someone at my WrestleMania party noted that “you could count the number of moves this guy has on one hand”. All the Superman Punches that Reigns threw at The Undertaker were met with silence from the crowd.

But more upsetting than watching Reigns wrestle, was watching The Undertaker try to make it through the match. There were several spots in the match that he didn’t seem like he had the strength to follow through. Most notably, he barely was able to lift Roman Reigns up for The Last Ride powerbomb.

Father Time has caught up to The Undertaker. His last great matches are long in the past and he was a shell of his former self at WrestleMania 33. It was like watching the greatest shortstop to ever play baseball, Derek Jeter, struggle in his final season with The Yankees to hit .256 as they failed to make the playoffs. It was similar to watching Martin Brodeur, the greatest goaltender in the history of hockey, make it to the Stanley Cup finals with the New Jersey Devils in 2012, only to get outplayed by the Los Angeles Kings’ young goaltender Jonathan Quick, and to watch The Kings win the cup. In all three cases, Brodeur, Jeter, and Undertaker, it was heartbreaking to watch an all-time-great who’s career that I had followed from the very beginning while their skills eroded at the end of their careers.

Following the match, after his loss to Reigns, when The Undertaker took off his iconic gloves, jacket, and hat and laid them down in the ring to signify his intent to retire, it felt like it was the right time for him to go. The WWE played out his exit from the ring and the sport of professional in a classy and dignified manner. It was sad to see him go, but it was the right thing to do. It was a beautiful moment, one that won’t be forgotten by fans of The Undertaker.

One of the last moments of the iconic career of The Undertaker.

The flip side of the coin, however, was the baffling decision to make Roman Reigns the winner of the match. Now the proverbial “torch” has been passed to Reigns, and he will be known as the person who retired The Undertaker. Reigns has now been in three straight WrestleMania main event matches, and each one was a dud.

One of my readers told me before the show that if Reigns won, he’d cancel his WWE Network subscription. After the show, he e-mailed me his confirmation e-mail saying that his subscription was indeed cancelled. The mood at my viewing party was pretty grim when Reigns won. In fact, a guy wearing an Undertaker shirt left before the match even started because he was worried that he would lose and he didn’t want to see it. That, and it was very late!

Our worst fears as WWE fans have been realized: The Undertaker, after 26 glorious years in The WWE has called it a career, and we are left with Roman Reigns on top. What else is there to say?

Here’s your new face of The WWE, Roman Reigns.

WrestleMania 33 was an interesting show, but in some ways, it was disappointing. The big problem I had was the length of the show. Counting the pre-show, it was just a shade over seven hours long! This is bucking the trend in sports, the NFL, MLB, and NASCAR are all making changes to their events to make them shorter, and the WWE is bucking that trend by headed in the opposite direction. Less would have been more for the WWE, had they cut out the women’s matches, shortened some of the entrances, and knocked out the mini Pitbull and Flo Rida concert, it would have been a much more manageable show. Most of the people at my viewing party were falling asleep on the couch after 11 PM. I can only imagine how worn out the live crowd was.

Only time will tell, but none of the matches jumped out at me as an “instant classic”. Other than The Undertaker’s retirement, there weren’t too many other indelible WrestleMania moments. There were however, some good spots and matches on the card, and I’ll break them down by looking at the winners and losers on the night.

The Losers

Rob Gronkowski: He was too injured to play the second half of The Patriots’ NFL season but he was good enough get physical on the WrestleMania pre-show? Hopefully, Bill Belichick was watching and plans to cut Gronk from the team in response.

Braun Strowman: He had a great build from July until the month before WrestleMania. Just as he was starting to get over, he jobbed to Reigns, backed down from The Undertaker on Raw, was relegated to the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the WrestleMania pre-show, and was eliminated early in the match. He had momentum, now he has lost all credibility and probably won’t recover.

The Big Show: In what was likely his last WrestleMania, he was also eliminated early from the Battle Royal. Unfortunate send off for the big man.

Baron Corbin: Underwhelmed and lost in his first WrestleMania one-on-one match.

John Cena: No, he didn’t really get engaged to Nikki Bella after their awful match. This was done as a commercial for a reality show, folks. Cena deserved a better WrestleMania moment than this. He once was a WrestleMania main-eventer, what happened?

Bray Wyatt: Now 0-3 at WrestleMania, and was champion for just over one month.

Samoa Joe: Why wasn’t he anywhere on the card?

The Cruiserweight Division: Still not over with the fans.

The Women’s Division: Not only is it not over with the fans, it will never be over with the fans, and now it is completely over-exposed. Both women’s matches were brutally awful to watch.

WWE Fans: We sat through seven hours of a show that ultimately anointed Roman Reigns as the face of the company for years to come. He’s worked three straight WrestleMania main events, he’ll never be any better than he is now.

The Winners

Mojo Rawley: For what it’s worth, winning the Battle Royale was an important win for him. Let’s see if he can capitalize.

AJ Styles: Made his match with Shane McMahon look great, and he got his first career WrestleMania win at age 39.

Shane McMahon: The daredevil held up his end of the bargain in his match against Styles. McMahon never disappoints.

Dean Ambrose: The WWE’s hardest worker walked out with his Intercontinental title in hand. He’ll never be the face of the company, but is a steady hand that the fans enjoy.

Kevin Owens: Owens added another title to his resume after an entertaining program and WrestleMania match against Chris Jericho.

Chris Jericho: After a long and mediocre career, Jericho finally got hot these past eight months. Good for him, that at his age he was able to perform well in a one-on-one WrestleMania match.

The Miz: The match was awful, but he drew raves for his skits spoofing The Total Bella’s show these past few weeks. He’s one of the best heels the WWE has right now and can build off of this momentum.

Triple H: Coolest entrance of the night. He got to ride a custom-built trike to the ring with a police escort. How great was that?

Seth Rollins: Toughed out a recent knee injury to put on a good show.

Stephanie McMahon: The 40-year-old mother of three never looked better. She did a great job of selling her bump through the table, something she rarely does.

The Hardy Boyz: Triumphantly returned home to the WWE with a raucous reception from the crowd as they won championship gold.

Jim Ross: After he was unceremoniously fired in 2013, Ross made his surprise return to WrestleMania to call the main event match. Good end to a tough two weeks for Ross following the tragic death of his wife.

Brock Lesnar: Back on top as “The Destroyer” after he beat Goldberg to win the WWE Universal Championship. It was a fast-paced match and the crowd was hot for it.

Goldberg: Exercised the demons from his initial WWE run with a highly entertaining program with Brock Lesnar. He got to be champion one more time, and he got to wrestle in front of his young son. This match was immensely better than their previous clash at WrestleMania XX.

The Undertaker: Had one of the best careers of any professional wrestler. Thanks for the memories, Deadman. It is hard to imagine WrestleMania without you.

With WrestleMania 33 in the books, expect things to reset starting with Raw and Smackdown this week. There are likely going to be wrestlers called up from NXT this week, and there could be some trades between the Raw and Smackdown brands. The WWE never takes any time off, it’s the story that never ends. It will be interesting to see where things head this month.

Last, but not least, my final installment of my WrestleMania 33 series is dedicated to The Undertaker Vs. Roman Reigns match. The Undertaker is the greatest performer in the history of WrestleMania. His legendary undefeated streak of 21 straight WrestleMania wins will likely never be broken. It is a statistical measure that stands up against Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak as a symbol of greatness. Much like DiMaggio, when the Undertaker’s streak was broken, he picked up and resumed where he left off as the one of the best of all time. He won his next two WrestleMania matches and boasts an all-time-best WrestleMania record of 23-1.

While he very rarely was in the main event, WrestleMania became the Undertaker’s show as his streak grew. It was first noted during commentary at WrestleMania XIII that he was undefeated in WrestleMania matches. The streak grew organically until it became the main attraction of the show year after year. It was a unique storyline, one that lasted over two decades. Champions came and went, and for that matter championship titles themselves came and went. But The Undertaker kept his streak alive at every WrestleMania he appeared at between WrestleMania VII and WrestleMania XXX.

The pinnacle of The Undertaker’s streak was his match against Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXV. That match is the greatest WrestleMania match of all time. It’s considered to be the Sistine Chapel of the art of professional wrestling. It was the perfect culmination of the right storyline and the right competitors, buoyed by their past performances at WrestleMania. Every WWE wrestler should strive to be in a WrestleMania match half as good as Undertaker/Michaels at WrestleMania XXV.

Unfortunately, the WWE committed a creative blunder this year by pairing The Undertaker against Roman Reigns. The same Roman Reigns who was critically panned for his performances leading up to, and in, the last two WrestleMania main events. The same Roman Reigns that is booked as a babyface but is roundly booed out of every building he steps foot in. The same Roman Reigns that most wrestling fans agree absolutely sucks.

What are two things that every professional wrestler should be good at? Those two things are skill on the microphone, and in-ring wrestling ability. Wrestlers need to be able to tell stories using these two essential tools. Roman Reigns is lacking in both areas.

Let’s start with his mic skills. Roman Reigns has no ability to emote or excite anybody during his promos. Classic wrestlers who are now in the WWE Hall of Fame all had the ability to connect with the audience during their promos. They are able to ad-lib, and talk as if they mean what they are saying. Check out these examples.

Stone Cold Steve Austin built an entire career out of this promo at King of The Ring in 1996. To hear him tell the story, he made the whole thing up on the fly. He invented the catch phrases “Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass” and “That’s the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so” on the spot. Nobody had to write them down and hand them to him. He lived and breathed the Stone Cold persona and this classic is what he came up with.

The Rock and Mankind were masters on the mic. You could watch YouTube highlights of both of them for days on end. The Rock had too many catch phrases to count, and Mankind was the perfect foil. Neither man needed to be told what to say, they just went on camera and let it roll.

This last one is one of my favorites. Watch as newly inducted WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle hold this live crowd in the palm of his hand. This is a long promo and it gets better and better as it goes on. He reacts to the crowd and then makes them chant “you suck!” louder and louder, over and over again. He makes it personal. You really believe that he is genuinely upset!

Now, watch Roman Reigns cut a promo. In this one he’s trying to sell a match at Hell in a Cell. Try staying awake for half of it. Reigns looks like he’s reading a teleprompter and barely cares about what he’s saying. Does he show any emotion? Does he make you want to watch the match? Or, does he make you wonder if something else better is on TV on another channel?

How about Reigns in-ring skills? Professional wrestling is an art. When it is done right, we suspend reality and believe that the competitors in the match are actually trying to hurt each other in an attempt to win a match. We know the outcome is predetermined in our minds, but when we watch the show, we believe that we are watching a legitimate athletic contest. That is, of course, when it’s done right. When it’s done wrong, all you can do is say to yourself “Man, this guy can’t wrestle”.

Roman Reigns is an example of a guy who can’t wrestle. I’m not saying he can’t do all the moves and take all the bumps he needs to take. He can do that just fine. But when I say he can’t wrestle, I’m talking about his in-wring psychology. His ability to command a crowd and suspend belief by selling for his opponent, and mounting a credible comeback is extremely lacking.

Take this snippet for example. Watch him no-sell the Seth Rollins buckle bomb and quickly return with his Superman Punch.

How often do you see him do this? It’s a classic babyface move, the good guy takes a beating but suddenly he is able to make a comeback and topple the bad guy. Hulk Hogan was a master at it. He’d get beat up, start to shake, get the crowd pumped into a frenzy, and then stop selling for his opponent as he made his comeback for the big boot and leg drop for the win. Reigns can’t figure it out. The crowd never pops for his Superman Punch. It comes out of nowhere, it’s like he instantly and miraculously isn’t hurt anymore and can start mounting a comeback. Nobody buys it!

Roman Reigns is past the point of being able to improve. He’s had his chance. He has been in two straight WrestleMania main events! By definition, there is no bigger push for a wrestler to get! This is as good as he will ever be! And he stinks!!!! A heel turn wouldn’t help at this point, he won’t be any better at being a bad guy than he is as a good guy!

There is a persistent rumor that Roman Reigns is going to get a push back to the main event of WrestleMania 34 next year in New Orleans. The rumor is that there will be a rematch of Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns from WrestleMania 31 for the WWE Universal Championship, this time with Reigns winning the title. Just the thought of this outcome makes me want to kick my cats across the room.

The theory is that if this is the plan for next year’s WrestleMania, that Reigns has to beat The Undertaker this year in order to set him on a winning path. The Undertaker is nearing or at the end of his career, and traditionally in the wrestling business when someone is on their way out, they are supposed to “do business” and put over up-and-coming talents in order to pass the torch.

In most cases, it makes sense for a retiring superstar to lose his last match. The Undertaker is a special case. He has given too much for too long to the business and to the fans. He has the most prolonged and unique professional wrestling career ever. He is one of the greatest of all time. He is what Roman Reigns will never be, and Roman Reigns is not deserving of the honor of beating The Undertaker at WrestleMania.

This match will define the future of the WWE. If Reigns does indeed go ahead to beat The Undertaker and win the main event and title at WrestleMania next year, it will set us towards a long and tortured path of Reigns being forced down our throats as the face of the company. For the sake of the future of the WWE, let’s hope these rumors aren’t true and The Undertaker wins his 24th WrestleMania match at WrestleMania this weekend.

Prediction: Winner, The Undertaker

This is the end of my four-part series of Analysis and Predictions for WrestleMania 33. If you have any questions or comments, please comment below or send me an e-mail (advice@njnonconformist.com).

Part three of my four-part series on WrestleMania 33 will focus on the Raw matches. On paper, these matches, in isolation, would make for a great pay-per-view card. As part of the overall show which is much bigger, the performers in them are going to all have to step things up a notch in order to be noticed and remembered. There is no shortage of opportunities here for some of these matches to considered classics if done well.

Seth Rollins vs. Triple H in a Non-Sanctioned Match

Nothing like a contract signing to get the juices flowing for a WrestleMania match.

This match is a great example of how long-term storytelling can build a tremendous amount of anticipation for a match. This match was made to be at WrestleMania for almost three years now and we finally can get out payoff for years of investment in the storyline.

The Shield was the most popular faction the WWE had seen in years when it made its debut on the main WWE roster in 2012. At the time of their arrival, it seemed that all three members had unlimited potential as singles competitors, and they had their chance to do such when Seth Rollins turned on the other two members of The Shield in a masterfully orchestrated heel turn in 2014, and aligned with Triple H. Rollins immediately overshowed Roman Reigns who turned out to be the most overrated of the three. Rollins went on to be WWE Champion and United States Champion over the course of a torrid heel run.

Unfortunately, Rollins lost all the momentum he had when he badly broke his knee at the tail end of 2015, forcing him to forfeit his championship and to miss WrestleMania 32. Upon his return in 2016, Rollins was eventually placed in a match for the new WWE Universal Championship which he lost to Finn Bálor at SummerSlam. The feeble Bálor was injured during the match and had to immediately vacate the title, thus setting up Rollins for a second chance to win it in a fatal-four-way match on Raw. Much to everybody’s surprise, Triple H, who hadn’t been seen on TV since WrestleMania 32, made his return to Raw, and gave Rollins The Pedigree. This handed the championship to Kevin Owens and turned Rollins babyface. It also set the stage for this match at WrestleMania 33.

Unfortunately for Rollins, he re-injured his previously broken knee in the run-up to WrestleMania 33 earlier this year. There was speculation that he wouldn’t be medically cleared for WrestleMania yet again this year, but he appears to have re-habilitated his knee to the point that he will be able to make it through a match. The WWE added his knee injury to the creative angle of the match by making it a non-sanctioned match, ostensibly forcing Rollins to waive any liability to the WWE if he suffers further injury.

Triple H has amassed a 9-11 WrestleMania win/loss record in his 20 WrestleMania appearances. Very few of those matches are remembered as timeless classics, he always seems to be overshadowed by somebody else on the roster. But there is no doubt that The Cerebral Assassin brings his best to WrestleMania.

If there is one thing Triple H is good at, it is building and selling a hot wrestling angle. His verbal assault and his beatings he’s placed on Seth Rollins these past few weeks have been absolutely brutal. He has the crowd in the palm of his hand, with them all hoping he gets beat by his former protégé. Not to mention, he always has an outrageous entrance at WrestleMania that is sure to bring the crowd to its feet.

I have high hopes for this match, as long as Rollins’ knee is up to the task. If he is healthy enough to perform, I would expect that Rollins will put on a technical masterpiece, and this match will tell an intense story.

The cruiserweight division has not caught on and is not over with the fans of the WWE Raw flagship show. Once the division made its debut on Raw in 2016, it lost all momentum it had gained after the critically acclaimed Cruiser Weight Classic tournament. In the isolation of their own show on the WWE Network, the cruiserweights were able to put on an entertaining program. When thrust into Raw, the individual competitors got lost. There’s no good reason for the fans to care about any of them, they just showed up with over-the-top ring entrances and theme music with no other real backing of their characters. Eventually, I would just start to fast-forward through their segments and matches because they are boring. I’m done with it, something is going to have to drastically change for me to care about the Raw Cruiserweight Division.

I suppose that if you are actually paying attention, these two are going to lay it on the line and perform some high-flying spots designed to get a pop out of the crowd. The match won’t go very long as it is part of the pre-show, where it belongs.

Not even the daughter of Ric Flair can save this match from being a total abomination. At least it will be a good time for a bathroom break during the show.

Prediction: This match is going to suck.

Chris Jericho (c) vs. Kevin Owens in a Singles match for the WWE United States Championship

This match is a shining example of how great storytelling, the right setting, and the right amount of time, can set up a stellar matchup at WrestleMania. The months-long “friendship” angle between Owens and Jericho seemed like it was designed to be a joke or a one-night-only occurrence at first. But the angle was kept alive for months, and delivered enough twists and turns to take us to an eventual WrestleMania match between the two.

Chris Jericho has never been the best, despite his massive ego and how he refers to himself. He was overshadowed by his contemporaries like The Rock, Kurt Angle, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Shawn Michaels for good reason. They were all better than him. His many returns as a nostalgia act over the past several years didn’t catch on at all, and resulted in some boring and routine matches that didn’t resonate with the WWE fan base. All this changed when he paired up with Kevin Owens in his most recent run.

Kevin Owens caught on with the WWE audience since day one. He doesn’t have a prototypical WWE wrestler’s look, in fact, he’s clearly overweight and not a physical specimen at all. However, he connected with the fans as someone who is relatable to them. Despite the fact that he has worked exclusively as a heel, he appealed to adult fans and gets his fair share of cheers. Fans respect his ability to get a storyline over with his great promos, he can be funny, evil, arrogant, and sarcastic, just like any top heel should be able to do. He has an innovative in-ring style, and his matches keep you on the edge of your seat.

The pairing of Owens and Jericho has revitalized Jericho’s career. Some say this is his best and most memorable run ever. At age 46, he probably is nearing retirement from the ring, and this match could be his last chance to create a lasting WrestleMania memory. Owens, on the other hand, still has plenty of gas left in the tank and wants to show the world that he can be a WrestleMania headliner at some point in his career.

Unlike most of the matches on the card, this one has veered towards “overbooked” territory. It would be one thing if it were a just a triple-threat tag team match. All three teams have had a great year and are deserving of being on the card somehow. But the late addition of the ladder stipulation was unnecessary. It’s almost as if somebody in WWE creative said to themselves last Monday “Oh, crap! We forgot to book a ladder match at WrestleMania! It’s not WrestleMania without a ladder match!”

The triple-threat ladder match at WrestleMania was revolutionized by Edge and Christian, The Hardy Boys, and The Dudleys during The Attitude Era. The revolution grew organically because the talents in them had shown the ability to work well in ladder matches prior to WrestleMania. The trio of wrestlers in this year’s ladder match don’t exactly have the same resume as those three classic teams had headed into WrestleMania 2000.

Gallows and Anderson have had a start-and-stop push since their WWE debut in 2016. In the beginning, they made a big splash as members of “The Club” along with AJ Styles and were received well by the fans. They ended up somehow getting lost in the pack after the brand split in July, but hung in there and were eventually awarded the Raw Tag Team championship. They seem to be still finding their way in the WWE, but this championship run, along with this match on WrestleMania 33 will certainly help their cause.

Enzo Amore and Big Cass hit the floor running when they received the call to the main roster last year. Their exposure from NXT had the crowd chanting along with their cadence on their very first night. They are an entertaining duo despite the fact that they work exclusively as baby faces. This is the type of pairing that is destined to break up at some point and feud with each other, so it is best for them to seize the opportunity they have now while they are still together.

Cesaro and Sheamus are together as a team, likely because the WWE has run out of ideas what to do with them as singles competitors. Cesaro is never going to catch fire, and Sheamus has been to the top but that was in the distant past. They found chemistry together and work well against both of the teams they are facing off against in this match.

This match could be either remembered as a classic, or bowling shoe-ugly. The ladder stipulation isn’t helping matters much. Instead of tagging in and out, all six men will be in the ring at the same time, making it difficult for them to time their spots well.

WWE Universal Champion, Goldberg is ready for his WrestleMania rematch against Brock Lesnar.

Who would have seen this match coming this time last year? Goldberg was an afterthought, a revered WCW hero who never caught on in the WWE, who seemed to be happy to have moved on with his life. All we knew about his departure from the WWE was that it was acrimonious and it didn’t seem like, at age 50, he was destined to come back for one more run.

What we didn’t know, was that Goldberg had the desire to come back one more time due to a life-changing event, the birth of his son. As he grew older, Goldberg wanted to give his son, Gabe, a chance to see him wrestle one more time. It seems that this humbled Goldberg and he was able to patch up his differences with the McMahon family and agree to return for the Survivor Series in 2016 for a match against Brock Lesnar.

The professional wrestling world was shocked at the outcome of the Lesnar/Goldberg Survivor Series match when Goldberg easily defeated Lesnar in about a minute and a half. Critics were quick to point out that they thought that the reason this happened was because of Goldberg’s age and lack of ability, the longest he could last in a match was under two minutes. What the critics didn’t see, however, was the WWE building towards a bigger feud between the two that will culminate in a WrestleMania 33 match between the two.

This is a very interesting angle that the WWE used to build this match. Brock Lesnar has been presented as an unbeatable destroyer since he ended The Streak of The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX. By painting him as someone who “underestimated” Goldberg, causing him to lose, it keeps his credibility as a destroyer intact. It also paints Lesnar as a credible threat to turn the tide and defeat Goldberg the second time around.

I had the misfortune of seeing their first matchup at WrestleMania XX live at Madison Square Garden. That match was a mess as both men, and the audience, knew they both were about to leave the WWE after that night.

This time around, both men are in a different place in their careers and their personal lives. Both genuinely want to put on a good show this time around, and make up for their lackluster performance in 2014. Goldberg isn’t known for putting on long matches, and at this age, it’s not known if he even can perform in a long match. But, that is beside the point. If this match goes 1 minute, 5 minutes, or 30 minutes, it will certainly be designed to tell a story and give the live crowd something to react to.

Prediction: Winner, and still WWE Universal Champion, Goldberg

I realize I’m going against the grain with this pick. The betting odds heavily favor Lesnar as Goldberg is rumored to be done with the WWE after this match. But the WWE shocked us once before at Survivor Series the last time these two faced each other. It wouldn’t surprise me if it happens again at WrestleMania 33.

Stay tuned for more analysis between now and Sunday. If you have any questions or comments, please comment below or send me an e-mail (advice@njnonconformist.com).